The Epic Inspiration of Bicycle Travel Literature in the Service of Political Commitment? The Little-Known Example of Édouard de Perrodil (1860-1931)

Édouard de Perrodil had a fourfold career: journalist, writer, cycling competitor and politician. In this contribution, we will read his bicycle tours with a new perspective in order to ask ourselves how conservatism in politics can coincide with modernism in sport. Perrodil’s epic style allows him to sublimate the sporting effort, to exalt the pioneer, while trivializing his racist views of the locals he met.